54. What's it like being hypnotized?
I haven't lived long enough to experience a lot of life things just yet, but some silly things happen to me. Not sure if many people can say that they've experienced them. Although, I think a lot of people have been hypnotized before. Here's my experience:
This particular story of my hypnosis happened when I was 18 years old. I just finished my last year of high school and the PTA (parent-teacher association) organized a "grad night" that the graduates paid to be a part of. My parents thought it would be nice for me to have a last hurrah with my schoolmates, but I kinda wanted to stay home. I went anyway because my uni friends who were alumni encouraged me to go since "it was super fun when they went" Spoiler: it was, uh, alright.
Imagine you and at least 50 of your classmates in a sweaty bus after you just finished walking the stage at graduation. You're a little nervous, full of uncertainty about what's going to happen next- especially when you go to college, your summer plans, and the adulthood settling in. You shift uncomfortably in your bus seat, quietly anticipating what will happen on this mysterious last night of adolescence. You heard that there will be prizes at the end of this whole grad night thing and you've been trying to rack your brain on what they're going to be. Suddenly the parents confiscates all of the phones and labelled them in a ziplock bag. (We weren't allowed to be on social media during our grad night!)
Well, I guess that's what happened to me.
The bus stopped and the chatter got louder and louder. The moms wrangled all of us 18 year olds in a single queue into the local YMCA pool. We entered the facility and everyone jumped into the water. But everyone hung out with their respective cliques, nothing majorly different about this at all.
Suddenly we all heard a whistle and we had to scramble towards the parents. The moms started tossing colorful shirts left and right, separating me from my friends. Now I'm with classmates that I didn't hang out with normally, but I'm forced to be in a team with them. That was the strangest last high school group project I've been a part of.
The team games were crazy competitive. There was one game where we have to pass oranges with our necks. Another game was a hula hoop relay where we had to pass the hula hoop without letting go of our hands. I didn't realize how energetic and dog-eat-dog everyone got? I thought this fighting spirit was reserved for our sports teams and academics.
The friendly team games had to stop momentarily because one of my classmates broke their ankle while running in the inflatable jumpy castles. Absolute crap. An ambulance had to come and everything. The girlfriend of the guy started wailing and complaining how we were locked in for 6 more hours (she was kinda obnoxious... but last I heard she's doing cool things these days). She went in the ambulance with him to accompany him.
Then I was hit with an immediate realization, oh god 6 more hours of this?
The moms decided it was time to corral us into the gym. We were all dripping wet and there were all of these carnival games set up inside. We were forced to sit on the gym floor in front of this short stage. We were introduced to this hypnotist and the majority of the crowd thought it was total BS. The guy was charming enough to keep our attention, but he saw the hesitancy and cynicism in our arrogant teenage faces, so he switched gears. He asked for volunteers.
I decided to volunteer because, why not? I don't really like to be in the center of attention, but in this case, I'm not the lead performer. I didn't mind. I thought, “Well, I don’t think I can be hypnotized, as my mind is always racing, and I don’t think I can go anywhere, but I think it’s a good experiment.”
I only counted 15 of us in a line on that short, wooden stage. Everyone else was gathered around in the circle and they watched the stage with quiet anticipation. The volunteers were instructed to close our eyes and put our hands out. The hypnotist's voice was very calm and he gently moved our hands and arms while he was talking.
All I really remembered from that moment was the darkness in my eyes. Everybody's eyes were closed shut, but I can hear everything that's happening beside me. I heard some people walking back, they were instructed to go sit back down with the crowd. I was still standing. I thought that I had to go sit down because my mind was racing... but I really couldn't open my eyes. I was internally panicking. I could hear everything, but I couldn't move at all. I simply could not move. It felt like I was just stuck in a limbo of sorts. Not asleep and not awake, just quiet, though still aware of the present.
I only really had panic attacks in the comforts of my own home. For some reason, I was having difficulty relinquishing control. I didn't want to have a full-blown meltdown in front of my peers, so I tried to breathe deeply. Wait- I was already breathing calmly? I couldn't move or breathe any differently. I felt like I was concentrating on something really hard. The hypnotist was walking behind us. I heard a "ok sleep!" and shrieks from the crowd.
Everyone was freaking out. Apparently one of our classmates fell asleep on the floor? I couldn't see. Also, I was kind of panicking.
One by one, bodies fell to the floor (according to my friends who were watching me sleep on stage). The hypnotist went behind the guy next to me. I was within earshot of his whispered instructions. I couldn't tell if I was visibly shaking, but I was really scared for some reason? There was no reason to be afraid, I was just with my peers and some mysterious hypnotist making people fall asleep.
When it was my turn, the hypnotist spoke calmly in my right ear. "Ok now what you're going to do is fall. Fall fall sleep. It's okay we got you. You're going to collapse on the floor and sleep, sleep."
Don't know what happened but I felt myself sliding down? Like sliding down on the floor? My body felt limp and the hypnotist caught me and gently laid me down. I couldn't move at all, but I was sleep on top of the guy next to me.
The whole crowd went nuts. I can hear my friends surrounding me.
"Oh god kay, are you good?! Are you dead? Can you hear me?" My friends were all shouting at me. I wish I can scream.
Yes!! I can hear you!!! Let me out!!
It was terrifying, although very humorous for me.
"Wake!" the hypnotist yelled this a couple times. I came to and I saw the scene. Everyone was sleeping on top of each other and the audience was gathered around our sleeping bodies. I started crying immediately. I didn't know what to do. I cried momentarily it was an unusual feeling not having control over my body for some odd reason.
Apparently when you're a hypnotist, you try to find people that can easily relax. A stage hypnotist typically selects audience volunteers through a process called "hypnotic screening." This process involves asking a series of questions to the audience members to determine which individuals are most susceptible to hypnosis. The hypnotist may ask questions such as "have you ever been hypnotized before?", "do you believe in hypnosis?", "are you willing to be hypnotized?". They also may look for signs of suggestibility, such as a willingness to follow instructions, or a calm and relaxed demeanor.
As a hypnotist, you will always have some attrition, that's just the nature of this type of show so bring up as many people as you have space for. They usually send people back to their seat, it doesn't do them any good to keep them up there if they stop being responsive. This is about entertainment, so it's actually good to get rid of unresponsive subjects to keep the show moving forward.
Before getting hypnotized, I thought there was an element of “losing consciousness” or “going under.” Turns out that never happens. People are fully conscious while doing hypnosis, fully aware. In fact, probably hyper-aware because when they can relax enough to let their “subconscious take the wheel”.
It is a widespread misconception that hypnosis is a very special experience, in fact, hypnotic state is a very ordinary human condition that everyone enters in so many different situations so many times everyday. It is just a very collected, focused state in which one is very receptive to advice, ideas or information give. When I was under hypnosis, I can observe, see, sense or hear things that the conscious mind is constantly battling. “This can’t be real, because you’ve never seen it before.” always lingers in the back of my mind.
If you can help the bouncer of your mind to stand aside for awhile, you are able to experience all kinds of things out of your control.
~ putting the sis in hypnosis,
<3 K